Wild-child superstar Colin Farrell shooting a movie with notoriously timid indie auteur Woody Allen? Believe it or not, the cameras began rolling this past week. “It’s a drama,” Farrell revealed, contradicting prior reports that the yet-untitled flick would lean more toward Allen’s comedic efforts. “We just started, we’ve done about four days, and I’m heading back [this week] to do a bit more.” Currently shooting in London, little is known about the film, as the “Match Point” writer/director is renowned for keeping plots and titles under wraps. What is known is that the film co-stars Ewan McGregor and Tom Wilkinson and, as he displayed with stammering delight, Farrell has developed a dead-on Woody Allen imitation. “He’s great, man,” Farrell grinned, snapping back into his own persona. “He’s great to be around.” …

Its second chapter is already the highest-grossing film of the year, with the biggest box-office opening of all time. Next month, the “Pirates of the Caribbean” step in front of movie cameras again to finish their third flick, “At World’s End.” According to series newcomer Naomie Harris, the seemingly endless box-office love for “Dead Man’s Chest” has given the actors a renewed sense of enthusiasm. “But it’s also more intimidating as well, because we have to make sure that ‘Pirates 3′ matches up,” she admitted. In the third film, Harris gets considerably more screen time, and her voodoo-priestess character gets considerably more power. “Tia Dalma gets to go on the ship with all the other characters, and you find out that she’s a lot more powerful than you realized in ‘Pirates 2.’ ” Laughing, she added that she can’t wait until the film’s May 25 release: “We’ll try and break some new records with ‘Pirates 3.’ ” …

With an impossibly enormous cast and a resurrected trivia answer in writer/director Emilio Estevez, the November release “Bobby” is sounding too bizarre to be real. The period drama revolving around the assassination of Robert Kennedy is very much on its way, however, and star Nick Cannon insists it’s going to be something special. “The cast is crazy,” he said, citing Anthony Hopkins, Sharon Stone, Lindsay Lohan and Ashton Kutcher. Cannon said the recently wrapped film demanded one of the heaviest performances yet in his young career. “I don’t smile one time throughout the entire movie,” he said. “I play a militant campaign manager in 1968. He’s a young guy, fresh out of college and trying to make a difference in the world and trying to work for Mr. Kennedy.” In preparation for the role, Cannon even went so far as to research the troubled period that led to the 1968 assassination of the charismatic presidential candidate some 12 years before Cannon was born. “I studied a lot about the civil-rights movement and listened to Dr. [Martin Luther] King tapes and watched a tape on Stokely Carmichael and different people like that, just to get into it … it was kind of like stepping into a history book … a lot of people who were on set actually were around during that time, and to hear people’s stories and how this event affected people’s lives, it’s definitely going to be something that’s very touching.” …

With the “Harry Potter” film series still going strong for Warner Bros. (even as Daniel Radcliffe searches for a spell strong enough to suppress his five o’clock shadow), Hollywood’s other studios have launched their own searches for the next great teen adventurer. Fox is staking its claim with this winter’s “Eragon,” Disney is making plans for more “Narnia” films and even the Weinstein Company has joined with a dark-horse candidate called “Stormbreaker.” “It’s based on books by Anthony Horowitz, starring a 14-year-old hero. He’s kind of a teenage James Bond figure,” explained star Bill Nighy. “He speaks five different languages and can kill you in about 12 different ways. Mickey Rourke is the villain, and if you want a villain, go no further. Alicia Silverstone very beautifully and glamorously plays his governess; Robbie Coltrane is the prime minister; Stephen Fry is the Q figure, the gadget man; and me and Sophie Okonedo do what Judi Dench does all by herself in the grown-up James Bond [films].” Calling the flick a “big British action movie,” Nighy added that the series will star 15-year-old newcomer Alex Pettyfer and will be helped along by an impressive literary pedigree and one more major star. “Ewan McGregor is his uncle, who trained him secretly to be a spy … I hope it’s going to be a hit because there are six other books. They sell like hot cakes … there were six or seven of them written by Anthony Horowitz — the first one in the series is ‘Stormbreaker’ — and hopefully, if it does well, we’ll get to do the other ones as well. It would be the modern-day version of ‘Harry Potter,’ it’s exactly that kind of thing. It’s funny and it’s silly, but it should be action-packed.” The first film is due in theaters August 18. …

“The Notebook” won the hearts of millions of moviegoers two years ago, but what if Allie and Noah had never given their love a chance? That provocative territory will be explored in “Evening,” a soon-to-film drama starring Claire Danes. “It’s a beautiful story. We start shooting it in September in Rhode Island,” Toni Collette recently reported. “It’s based on a Susan Minot novel and it’s adapted by Michael Cunningham, who I’ve worked with before on ‘The Hours.’ He’s brilliant.” Collette also delved into plot details: “Vanessa Redgrave plays my mother, and she’s on her deathbed and moving back and remembering her first love when she was young. Claire Danes is playing her when she was a young woman, meeting a person that she ultimately didn’t spend her life with — but on her deathbed, that’s the person she’s thinking about.” The heart-tugging flick is expected in 2007, but Collette stopped short of making too many comparisons to the Ryan Gosling/ Rachel McAdams weep fest: “I haven’t seen ‘The Notebook,’ ” she laughed. “Sorry!” …

With “Saved!,” Jena Malone made a name for herself playing a pregnant Baptist high school student. Now she’s eager to give birth to “The Go-Getter,” a project that should shatter any preconceived notions audiences may have about her sweetly innocent exterior. “I [play] a crazy teen from Reno, which I can relate to because I was born in Sparks,” the former Nevada resident said of the flick, which casts her alongside Lou Taylor Pucci and Zooey Deschanel. “My character is very aware of using sexuality as a manipulative tool, which was fun, because I have a striptease scene. I don’t get naked, of course, but my character is pretty aggro, and I became very aggressive, very angry. I didn’t realize that it would do that. It was very beautiful in that sense, because untapped women’s sexuality is very much about anger, how we use and abuse, and what’s been used and abused within us.” The offbeat film, directed by indie veteran Martin Hynes, also boasts some offbeat tunes for Malone’s sexy strip. “We had some Pixies, some Cody Chestnutt, and my ex-boyfriend made this song that we used — it will be on the soundtrack. Some strange things.”